At least three UCSD affiliates are among the more than 3,400 couples who have obtained same-sex marriage licenses in San Francisco since the city began offering them to gay couples on Feb. 12.
Ali Liebegott and Anna Joy Springer, both lecturers in the literature department, arrived at San Francisco City Hall with another friend, a UCSD graduate student, and her partner at 6 a.m. on Feb. 19.
“I think we just saw it in the paper and we kept thinking every day that it was going to end,” Liebegott said. “And then, we heard that it was going to be going through that Friday, so we just decided — might as well try to make it before Friday.”
The two couples joined hundreds of others in line hours before San Francisco’s City Hall opened. About 17 hours after leaving San Diego, the couples were married in a double ceremony.
“Different people were doing sweet things like bringing cookies to the people in line,” Liebegott said. “People were calling up florists from all over the country and just saying, ‘deliver these to people in line.’”
Liebegott and Springer met while touring together with a band called Sister Spit. They have been together for five years.
Liebegott said the crowd of people waiting for marriage licenses included many couples who have been together for decades.
Every time a couple got a license, those waiting in line would clap and cheer as the newlyweds left City Hall.
“It was so surreal because we were so tired and we had been awake for so long,” Liebegott said. “It was just intense.”
San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom ordered the city clerk to begin issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples in response to the equal protection clause of the constitution of the State of California.
However, state Attorney General Bill Lockyer and others hold that Proposition 22, a statewide ballot initiative that was approved by voters in 2000, defines marriage as only between a man and a woman.
Paul Frymer, a professor in UCSD’s sociology department and expert in employment discrimination, says that the issue will likely be decided in the courts.
“[Newsom] is looking at the Constitution, and Prop. 22 is a statute,” Frymer said. “That’s where he’s taking a gamble. He’s making his own interpretation of California’s State Constitution.”
The California Supreme Court denied a request for an injunction to stop the same-sex marriages on Feb. 28. However, the court did agree to hear arguments on the matter and ordered that legal briefs be filed by March 5.
Two other lawsuits challenging the marriage licenses have been filed, but trial dates have not been set. The ceremonies will likely continue until court hearings determine the legality of the licenses.
Protesters and supporters of same-sex marriages gathered on the steps of San Francisco City Hall along with those hoping to be married.
“The police were everywhere,” Liebegott said. “It was like being part of something political again.”
In response to the wave of same-sex couples flocking to San Francisco to be married, President George W. Bush recently announced his support of a federal constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage.
“It’s not going to happen. It’s just too hard to do,” Frymer said. “I don’t even think [Bush] intends to ever get [the support required to pass a constitutional amendment].”
Liebegott expressed hope that same-sex marriage will not be used by presidential candidates as a smoke screen for other issues like the war in Iraq and health care coverage.
On Feb. 27, the city of New Paltz, N.Y., became the second city in the nation to offer marriage licenses to gays and lesbians. The mayor of the town of 6,000 people said it is his “moral obligation” to grant marriage licenses without regard to sexual preference.
Frymer predicts that in 30 years, the fight for same-sex marriage will look the way the fight for interracial marriage does today.
“Long term, we’re going to look back at this and it’s going to be ridiculous that we were having this debate,” Frymer said. “This is the big frontier of gay and lesbian equality.”
For Liebegott, the wedding ceremony was as much about being part of a political movement as about codifying her relationship.
“To be at the forefront of a civil rights movement seems really important,” Liebegott said.
Liebegott expressed that marriage seems like a more valid way for teachers to have a relationship on a university campus.
Regardless of how the courts rule about their San Francisco marriage license, Liebegott and Springer consider themselves spouses for life.
“I’ve been with Anna Joy for a while and I really love her,” Liebegott said. “I feel like we’re married anyway.”
